A keen freerider built a world-class jump course in his hometown in Mexico in the hope that the world’s best riders would come and ride. And, wow, did they! Chelsea Kimball was there to compete and to take in the unique atmosphere.

WORDS CHELSEA KIMBALL

PHOTOGRAPHY VALENTIN POPINEAU POPIVAL

I first heard of Freeride Fiesta when I was browsing Instagram after work back when it got dark at 5pm in Park City, Utah. My friend Aric Duncan was on his way down to Mexico to compete in the qualifier event at Mazati Gravity Park.

Instantly I was pretty jealous. I would have loved the chance to go down and compete for a spot at the main event, but since I’d only just learned about the event it was already too late. I messaged Aric to wish him luck and began searching to find more information about Freeride Fiesta. It turns out Johny Salido, Mexico’s biggest name in freeride, began planning the exhibition in early 2020. He wanted to create an event to showcase the style and skills of the best freeriders in the world. It sounded so great! I went on about my week and to my surprise Johny messaged me with an invite to come down and ride at the main event, I was ecstatic! With a rider list packed with talent like Bienvenido ‘Bienve’ Aguado, DJ Brandt, Antoine Bizet, Cam Zink, Carson Storch and Nicholi Rogatkin, I was pretty nervous, but anxiously started counting down the days.

My boyfriend Ryan Rodriguez and I arrived in Guadalajara in Mexico a few days before the start of the event. Somehow my bike never made it onto the plane in Las Vegas, so after some stressful searching a plan was made to get it when it arrived the following day. After a bit of haggling at the car rental desk we finally got to Ajijic, Mexico, where we were to stay at an Airbnb. Ajijic is a small town on the shore of Lake Chapala, the largest lake in Mexico. The Salido family kindly opened their lakeside home in Ajijic to most of the guests for the event, but there were a lot of media people and riders so some stayed at other local accommodation as we did. Ryan and I spent the next morning exploring the little town before making the hour-long drive to La Soledad Bike Park to check out the Freeride Fiesta course.

Chelsea and her massive bike

Not the uplift

Drops and dirt quarries

The first thing you see as you drive down the dirt road towards the line is the massive drop. The angles make it look 100 feet tall! Luckily this changed as we got closer to look a bit more manageable. I was in awe walking looking at all the features. Really excited and intimidated all at once and in disbelief we were here for such an awesome event. Almost all the jumps were bigger than any I had hit before, but looked like they would be so fun. We were both pretty excited to ride.